VIVALDI'S MENAGERIE is
my reponse to the Orchestra of St John's commission for a new concerto
and the result of three lines of thought. First, I have been interested
for some time in the difference between a fake and the real thing and
influenced by the writings of social philosopher, Jean Baudrillard, on
the subject of simulacra. Second, I am struck by the answer to the Zen
question, 'How do you paint Spring?' as related by Master Dogen, one of
the great spiritual giants of history: 'When you paint Spring do not
paint willows, plums, peaches or apricots, but just paint Spring.'
Third, I am stimulated by the idea that we may no longer speak of
'content' in art other than in terms of language.
Vivaldi's FOUR SEASONS has
been appropriated for this new work on
account of its factitious sounds from the natural world and its
undisputed status as a contemporary cultural icon, especially since the
massive success of Nigel Kennedy's recording. The musical content of
VIVALDI'S MENAGERIE comes from
the second concerto in Vivaldi's series,
L'Estate ('Summer'), with the exception of the first eleven bars of the
second violin part, which have been taken from the opening of the first
concerto, La Primavera ('Spring'), The solo violin part is
principally a reworking of the music Vivaldi describes as represetnting
the 'weeping shepherd' in reference to the sonnet, which underpins the
original concerto. Therefore, the solist may be interpreted as the
Ventian violinist himself, simultaneously lionized and terrorized by a
strange orchestra of wild beasts. However, an alternative
interpretation refers to a secondary meaning of 'menagerie', namely,
the place where a diverse group is housed. In this sense, the music is
a container for those theories above, which have rise to the piece, as
well as a series of real things: bad weather, a Venetian shepherd, a
popstar violinist, eighteenth-century music, etc. By analogy, the work
places an imaginary film projector behind the audience and means an old
film of Vivaldi playing the violin onto a screen in the form of the
musicians. Most of the film is visible, but not all of it, as there are
scratches, imperfections and other signs of the celluloid's age, which
prevent a complete visual experience. Nonetheless, it is perhaps
possible to 'know' what we are watching, since we are aided by our
memory of the real thing.
copyright © N.G.Brown 2007